Childcare providers' attitudes, knowledge, and practice related to developmental monitoring to promote early identification and referral. Early Child Development and Care.

Assessment of the capabilities of human service providers to care for individuals from diverse cultures has been widely discussed in the literature. However, a less examined area is the appraisal of the cultural competence of the administrative or policy bodies whose actions shape the character of these human services. This article demonstrates an approach for evaluating a policy organization's cultural competence using a governmental agency as a case study. Findings from this assessment prompted this agency to generate plans to further enhance its cultural competence.

Practicing psychologists are increasingly identifying serious problems in behavior, emotional development, and regulation in infants and very young children that result in impaired family functioning and relationships. Often these child challenges are in combination with a range of parental concerns including addictions, homelessness, teen parenthood, and unresolved feelings from the past. Infant mental health (IMH) is a broad field encompassing theory, research, and interventions with very young children and their families. This article provides an overview of IMH concepts, with special focus on assessment and interventions that can be integrated into the psychologist's current practice.Sixteen-year-old Tammy holds her newborn son and looks angrily at her 2-year-old daughter, Crystal. She has come from a homeless shelter that serves women with children. Shelter staff members worry about Crystal, because she is a poor eater and is often aggressive. When asked what her concerns are for Crystal, Tammy says flatly, "She is bad. I know she hates me." Katherine's son is placed in foster care because of neglect. After completing treatment for a cocaine addiction, Katherine regains custody of Joseph. When Katherine returns to work, Joseph screams and cries when she must leave him with a child-care provider. Katherine asks, "Why is he so afraid?" John and Karen's child is born premature and spends many weeks in the hospital. When the baby finally comes home, Karen is concerned when the baby does not seem to sleep well. One night, Karen catches John checking to see that the baby is still breathing. She is frustrated that he is waking the baby with his checking. John tells Karen that his parents had a premature baby when he was 15 years old. The baby died of sudden infant death syndrome. John says, "It was so awful. I never want to go through that again." ANGELA M. TOMLIN received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is on the faculty of the Riley Child Development Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her interests include behavior management of young children, autism spectrum disorders, and infant and toddler mental health. STEPHAN A. VIEHWEG received his MSW from Indiana University-Indianapolis. He is on the faculty of the Riley Child Development Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine. His interests include infant and toddler mental health, early childhood, families, and cultural competence.

To evaluate the impact of "Watch Me!" developmental monitoring training on childcare providers' knowledge and attitudes related to monitoring developmental milestones and making recommended referrals when there is a concern about a child's development. MethodsA pretest-posttest design using web-based surveys was used to assess the impact of "Watch Me!" training on knowledge and attitudes related to conducting five key components of developmental monitoring (tracking development, recognizing delays, talking to parents about development, talking to parents about concerns, and making referrals). Variables included belief that developmental monitoring is important and is part of childcare provider role;